Looking for Mary

Today in Detroit it’s been warm and casual; with Good Friday off from work, I took a long walk, did my taxes, and kept my eyes and ears open. The federales, it turns out, owe me a little special something – usually I end up having to pay them. Now, if credit card companies would follow suit and start sending me high interest payments, I’d be much obliged. . . . .

During my afternoon outdoors adventure, I dropped by Judy’s Lunch at Kercheval and Maryland. It’s a tiny old school diner with a U-shaped counter; smoking is not only permitted, but most certainly dominates the long parts of the U. Overall, Judy's looks and feels like a diner from some long-ago decade: the New Age has not yet come scampering though the door. The short order chefs tend to be biker mamas with gruff demeanors, but they are efficient and tend to add an extra garnish to the food they serve up. There are newspapers all around, so I skimmed the Free Press. A front page article suggests that Detroit could become the murder capital of the USA again, with 106 recorded homicides as of last Tuesday vs. 374 for all of 2005. Even before the latest round of shootings, that’s a 22 percent jump from this time last year. While pondering these little facts, I palmed the “57” on the back of a bottle of Heinz ketchup to get it flowing; to my right, a woman with wild orange hair talked nonstop to a an old Italian man, who sat listening with quiet politeness. I caught something about the incorruptability of the bodies of saints, and some saint being dug up after two years to prevent vandalism – completely intact except for “one ear starting to decay.” I was almost sad to see them leave.

After Judy's, I walked down to St. Ambrose, where I converted three years ago, and listened to the bells toll. I love the sound of church bells – so otherworldly, so anything but usual. Same goes for rustling chimes and breezes along the way.

In any case, I hope you all are doing well. There may be a large public memorial service for Proof tomorrow; details pending.

The book pictured above is a very good one. It came out in 2001, though it seems like yesterday. I think Looking for Mary gave me a little extra impetus to become Catholic. It's a really sweet (and sometimes dark) memoir by Bev Donofrio, who also wrote Riding in Cars With Boys: Confessions of a Bad Girl who Makes Good (1990). One of the things Donofrio recalls is how she began finding images of Mary and placing them around her living space. I can appreciate that, for sure. Thanks to friends who "get" the Catholic outlook, my apartment is practically filled with crucifixes, images of Mary in several incarnations, and all sorts of religious inconography. It's all very mysterious, certainly, but permits and encourages a great deal of quiet contemplation and faith-strengthening solitude.

Tomorrow, I'll write about the rosary, among other things. Until then, peace be with you on this Good Friday.